The One Who Understands Me
by Jodiexxx
Summary: Yasuhara/Mai. SPR continues to take on cases that intrigue the boss and as the investigations go on, feelings change. Mai learns that sometimes, feelings can be transferable - especially when they're unrequited. Multiple cases.
1. The Haunted Office Building (1)

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.

Note: This is set after the end of the manga; that is, Naru has already come back from England.

**I**

_Case 1: The Haunted Office Building (Part 1)_

**July, Day 0**

"Mai, tea."

"Yes!" Mai set down the things she was filing and went to the kitchen.

_You'd think, with that being the only thing he says to me these days, that my last name is Tea_, she thought to herself, putting the kettle on. The corners of her lips twitched upwards at the thought; imagining Lin calling her 'Tea-san' was rather amusing.

She brought the steaming cup of tea to Naru's office and fetched the empty one from his desk. He gave her a curt nod – his version of saying thanks nowadays, which was already rather surprising considering that he never used to thank her – and returned his full attention to his computer.

When Mai returned from the kitchen, ready to continue with her filing assignment, she found a harried-looking woman standing near the door. Her hair was disheveled and her eye bags almost took up a quarter of her face. She looked a second away from fainting.

Upon seeing Mai, she said, voice barely a croak, "Ah – excuse me, is this … are you paranormal investigators?"

Mai hurried over to her. "Yes, this is the Shibuya Psychic Research. Are you alright? Here, please have a seat. Would you like a cup of tea?"

The woman smiled weakly at her. She couldn't have been older than 40, but her face was haggard and so was her body language. "That would be great, thank you …"

Mai quickly prepared a cup of tea and set it on the table before the woman.

"Please wait a moment while I get my boss so that we can hear about your case," Mai said, bowing before heading for Naru's office.

She knocked on his door. "Naru, we have a client."

They settled down on the couch opposite their client and introduced themselves to each other. The woman was Satsuki Tachibana and she was the CEO of her company, which was a large family business, having recently stepped up to the position after her father retired.

"Shibuya-san …" Tachibana said, staring into the cup as though its contents held the secrets of the universe. "There have always been some minor disturbances in the company, but now things have escalated to the point that none of us can ignore it anymore.

"Five people have gone missing. The entire department is in a disorganized mess – nobody wants to come to work, and I really can't blame them," she said, looking on the verge of tears.

"Department?" Naru asked.

Tachibana nodded. "Sorry, I should have clarified. The … things that have been happening only affect one floor – where the HR department is. Even the small matters that didn't bother anyone much were only limited to the HR department. For as long as I can remember, even when I was a little girl, the HR department was always a little different – _off_ – compared to the others. Doors would open and close by themselves, and stationery would disappear and appear somewhere else. Sometimes a computer would be found up and running in the morning.

"Recently – I'm not sure exactly when – things started to change. The first person went missing two weeks ago. We thought she was just irresponsible – resigned without telling anyone, you know. She just didn't show up for work one day. She wasn't the employee of the month type, so when all our calls and emails were ignored, we thought that she was just too cowardly to officially quit."

She took a deep breath. "Then the week after another person didn't show up. She was really diligent; one of those employees you'd expect to quickly go up the ranks in a short period of time. It wasn't like her to be irresponsible and quit without saying anything, and this started people wondering if this had anything to do with the previous employee who disappeared.

"At this point, rumors were spreading like wildfire. People started to talk about how things had been strange around the office; someone was locked in the toilet at some point after office hours and she was the only one on that level, the lights went out all of a sudden and came back on after thirty minutes, even the technician couldn't do anything about it, and the worst part is … the worst part is …" she trailed off and shuddered slightly.

She lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip of the tea.

"The worst part is," she whispered, "that people started hearing laughter in the office after working hours. I've been down there yesterday and the day before yesterday – nobody's willing to work there anymore – and I've heard it myself."

"What did the laughter sound like?" Naru asked, gaze trained on the woman in front of him.

"It was sharp, shrill and … I think it was a woman's laugh," she said, trembling slightly. "It was a very long and hysterical laugh, and it didn't sound human at all. It sounded so incredibly happy, as though it had got what it wanted. It sent chills down my spine. I checked everywhere when I heard that – I thought maybe I was imagining things – but I couldn't find anyone in the office. I had a security guard with me at that time, and he heard the laughter too."

"Was it possible that you didn't notice her? If the office took up the entire floor it must have been rather large, after all."

She shook her head adamantly. "No, that's impossible. We have a very thorough CCTV system set in place and we checked all of the videos. I checked under every table and looked at every cubicle. The level's now closed off to everyone except authorized personnel – me – and no one should have been able to get in."

"What about the other missing people?"

"Would you like the dates of when each person went missing? I can provide their names as well," she said, raising her head.

The wild, desperate look in her eyes made Mai feel extra sympathetic towards her. Running a company as the head must have been stressful enough as it was without these added troubles.

"Yes, that would be very useful," Naru said, writing down the dates as she told him.

"They're all females?" he said, looking up from his notes.

She nodded. "It's very strange, because the gender ratio in our HR department is very well proportioned."

"You say these occurrences have only started recently – was it before or after you became the CEO?"

She frowned. "After. I took on the role six months earlier. But that seems unrelated because the first person became missing only two weeks ago."

"Have you hired any new people recently?"

"Yes, of course … it's a big company; we hire new people quite regularly." She paused, looking pensive. Naru waited somewhat patiently for her to collect her thoughts. "Oh, but for the HR department we've only hired two new people in the past three months."

"When was that?"

"I can't remember the exact date, but I can go back and check for you. Would you help me, please?" Tachibana said, looking pleadingly at Naru. "Everyone is afraid … even the people from other departments are terrified. I haven't been sleeping much for a week."

Naru nodded. "Yes, SPR will take on this case. We will need to stay in the site of investigation – the level is closed off to everyone but you, you say?"

"That's right."

"Then we will hold our base and sleeping quarters in the office. Is that alright with you?"

"Of course, of course," she said, a relieved look coming over her face. "Thank you so much, Shibuya-san! Here is my business card; the address of the building is on it."

"We will be there tomorrow at 10AM," he said. "We will see you then."

When she left, Naru went into Lin's office after telling Mai to contact the others. Mai continued filing and organizing the documents, but her mind was already on their new case.

:-:-:

**July, Day 1: 10.40AM**

They decided to set the base in the largest office in the department and had just finished settling down the monitors in the base. Mai was getting ready to set up video cameras and thermometers in the offices and toilets when Bou-san, Ayako, and Yasuhara came in.

"Jou-chan!" Bou-san said, immediately approaching Mai and ruffling her hair. "How've you been? The last time I saw you was a week ago!"

She grimaced and swatted at him. "Cut that out, Bou-san! It hasn't been that long!"

After Naru had gone to England, Mai's bond with the rest of the SPR irregulars had surprisingly strengthened. They took on cases while waiting for Naru's return, and got even closer as a team.

Yasuhara was the one who bonded most with Mai, having helped her with schoolwork. They met up on average twice a week at a café, usually in between cases, to study together.

This would be the first case they would be taking on with Naru as the boss since his return to Japan. Mai was excited already. Although Madoka was a great acting head, and they probably had more fun with her being in charge, it just didn't have the same feel without Naru and Lin present.

Admittedly, she missed Naru's brusque and sometimes tactless manner - although if questioned she would deny it to her death. Besides, she still remembered clearly his rejection to her confession of her feelings: me, or Gene?

She remembered the sting, which had rapidly evolved into a stab where the invisible sword was thrust mercilessly into her chest. She remembered the sensation of having her chest torn open, heart and lungs ripped out so that breathing felt almost painful. She remembered crying for nights on an end, her pillow the only witness to her tears.

_Because Naru you idiot - I never, not even for once, believed that the Naru in my dreams was the real you. I never mentioned that Naru because I never believed it was who you actually were in real life. Before I found out Gene's existence, I only thought that somehow I was dreaming of you, and I never had any doubts about separating the you in real-life from the Naru in my dreams. It was never Gene, you idiot._

She didn't even know if it was a real rejection. For all she knew it could have been a genuine question. She did know that if he had feelings for her like she did for him though, that he would have said it then anyway. If he had chosen not to, despite having feelings for her too, then Mai could come to terms with that and accept it as well.

She had long stopped wondering months ago and accepted all that had happened was lost and gone. She didn't have a time machine that could let her go back in time to change how things had gone, and anyway if she could have, she wouldn't. Mai wasn't so much of an egoist to believe that Naru _had_ to have feelings for her. The odds were against her; when had he ever given any indication he was interested in her that way? She couldn't see it, and that was probably because it wasn't even there in the first place.

It was time to move on.

Mai had congratulated herself when she saw him, for the first time after he had returned to Japan, on only feeling some butterflies in her stomach. It was no longer the same full-blown butterfly farm that used to erupt whenever she saw him. It was progress, and she was glad for it.

They never spoke about her confession that day, and Mai decided it would probably be best to keep it that way. If he didn't want to bring it up, she didn't see how it could do any good to bring it up herself.

"I brought along some cold soft drinks," Yasuhara announced, holding up the plastic bag he was carrying for everyone to see. "Would you all like some?"

"Yes!" Mai leaped at the chance for something sweet to drink. "Thanks, Yasuhara-san! You're the best!"

He chuckled. "No problem. I'll just leave this on the table here. If anyone wants any you know where to get one!"

"Mai, have you forgotten you were supposed to set up the video cameras and thermometers?" Naru's voice stopped Mai's actions just as she was pulling at the tab of the soda can.

"Oh, yeah!" she said, startled. "Sorry! I'll get right to it."

"I'll come with you," Yasuhara said, looking at Naru for acknowledgment.

Naru nodded at him and turned back to the monitors. Mai grinned at Yasuhara.

"I'll do those four, and you do those four?" Mai said, pointing at the office doors.

"Yeah, alright," he said. "I'll meet you back here and we'll go to the toilets."

Mai noted that all of the offices she was in charge of had about the same temperature as the open area. She finished before Yasuhara, so she stood around and waited for him. As she looked around the open area at all the cubicles, she wondered if it would be useful to take the temperatures of them as well. Would the cold be concentrated within an unrestrained space, or would it diffuse? She stepped to one of them and turned on the thermometer.

"What are you doing?"

Mai jumped. She turned her head to see Yasuhara with his head cocked to the side, looking curiously at her.

She blushed furiously. "Nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

How silly of her, of course she wouldn't get any results by measuring the temperature of a _cubicle_!

Looking amused, he raised an eyebrow. "Really? It didn't look like nothing to me ... Were you trying to take the temperature of this cubicle?"

She spluttered.

"Of course not! That would be absolutely ridiculous of me! I ..." Mai hung her head. "Okay, you were right. I was."

His response was not at all what she expected. "Why would it be ridiculous of you? That's an interesting idea."

She peeked at him through her fingers. "You're not going to laugh at me?"

"Definitely not," he said, shaking his head. "What if it was someone who worked in one of the cubicles? It doesn't hurt to try. Let's check after we're done with the toilets."

She smiled and nodded. "Okay."

"Taniyama-san."

She looked over her shoulder at him, a questioning look on her face. "Hm?"

"Don't always be so fast to discount yourself, alright? You're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for," he said, patting the side of her head. "I should know, after tutoring you for the past few months."

Mai felt her lips curve up to form the biggest smile she'd had in a year. "Thanks, Yasuhara-san."

The girls' toilet was about the same temperature as the entire area, except that one of the cubicles was colder - about 10 degrees lower - than the rest. Mai noted the cubicle's location; the third one away from the door. When she turned to leave, however, the temperature of the toilet plummeted sharply. She checked the thermometer she was holding in alarm.

Four degrees Celsius.

She sprinted to the door. Horror bubbled in her stomach when she realized that she couldn't open the door that opened easily a few moments ago.

Panicked, she banged on the door. "_Yasuhara-san! Yasuhara-san! Are you there? I can't get out_!"

It took only five seconds of hammering her fists against the door for it to swing open. Her jaw dropped when she saw him standing in the doorway, hand on the doorknob, his expression tight with fear. The temperature in the toilet had already increased to what it was before.

"Did you - the door -" was all she managed to get out before she hurled herself at him. "Yasuhara-san!"

"It's alright," he said soothingly, patting her head. "You're fine now. Come on, let's go back to the base first."

She allowed herself to be led by his hand on her shoulder back to the base. When she returned, Ayako took one look at Mai's face and promptly snatched her out of Yasuhara's hands.

"What happened, Mai? Are you alright?" she asked, guiding her to a chair.

Naru watched her sit down, all of his attention shifted from the monitors to her.

Inhaling sharply, Mai nodded. "I'm fine. I was in the toilet setting up the video camera when the temperature fell to four degrees. Then when I tried to leave, the door seemed locked - I couldn't open it. I banged on the door and then Yasuhara-san ... did you have to force it open? You didn't kick it open because the door swung open outwards."

Yasuhara shook his head. "I didn't have to - the door wasn't locked. I only had to pull it open the usual way."

Mai's eyes widened. "It was impossible for me to open it earlier. The doorknob wouldn't even turn."

"Maybe it unlocked while you were banging on the door?" Ayako suggested.

Naru asked, "Did you see anything while you were in there?"

"No, I didn't see anything," Mai said, putting a hand to her forehead. "But the third cubicle to the door was a lot colder than the others."

Naru turned to Yasuhara. "Yasuhara-san, did you get anything useful about the history of this building last night?"

Opening his bag and pulling a file out of it, Yasuhara said, "This building is pretty old – it has been around since the 1960s and renovated a few times now. There has been one person found dead in this building – a 32-year-old woman named Sae Kasahara. That's all I have so far; I didn't have sufficient time to do enough research yesterday."

"Alright. Please continue with your research today, and report back with any further findings. From now on, if anyone needs to leave the base, they have to bring someone with them," Naru said. "No one is to go anywhere alone. Is that clear?"

The rest nodded.

"Mai, tea. Takigawa-san, please escort her."

Mai made a face at Naru's back before following Bou-san to the pantry.

"How's school going, Jou-chan?" he asked, grinning at her.

"Pretty good. Yasuhara-san's been helping me out with my schoolwork, and I'm doing quite well!" she said, looking pleased at the thought. "How's your band?"

"The usual," he said, shrugging. "Ah, but we have a gig coming up next Saturday. Wanna come watch?"

"You know I'd love to. Text me the location and time. We'll be there."

"We?"

"I'll drag Yasuhara-san along," she said, the promise clear in her voice.

Yasuhara and Mai had been to one of Bou-san's gigs for the first time ever in January, and Mai had to admit that Bou-san had a great voice. She could totally understand the fan girls just swooning all over themselves as she watched him perform onstage. Yasuhara himself pretended to be one of them, constantly making love-struck faces at Bou-san, who barely stopped himself from flinching whenever he caught Yasuhara's eye in the crowd.

Bou-san laughed. "I'll hold you to that."

:-:-:

**Author's Note:** Okay, as the summary says, this will be a Yasuhara/Mai fic. There'll definitely be a resolution of the topic of Mai's unrequited feelings towards Naru as well, possibly (likely) a love triangle; I love those! I've spent days looking for a long multi-chaptered story dedicated to Yasu/Mai and couldn't find any, so I've given up and decided to write my own. I wasn't planning on writing a Ghost Hunt fanfic because I find them so hard to write, but I'm desperate haha. I'm writing the whole mystery/horror Ghost Hunt investigation case mainly as a base to develop the Yasuhara/Mai, because I feel it'd be kind of weird for a long Ghost Hunt fanfic not have any cases/mysteries in them, so please forgive me if I'm not doing too well with it. I specialize in romance, OTL I'll happily accept constructive criticism with regard to the plot/development of the case/anything else, so please feel free!


	2. The Haunted Office Building (2)

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.

**II**

_Case 1: The Haunted Office Building (Part 2)_

**Day 1: 1.30 PM**

Tachibana-san showed up at the department in the afternoon, apologizing for the delay. She'd had to settle some problems with relocating the people working at the HR department to share a level with another department.

"I'm free to answer any questions you have now," she said, pulling out a chair at the table Naru, Lin and Mai were sitting at. "I have the names and photos of the newer hires at the department, by the way."

Yasuhara was off doing further research in the public library, and Ayako was making charms for the restrooms and offices. Bou-san was keeping an eye on the monitors. Apart from the restroom scare earlier, the afternoon so far had been rather mild.

"Thank you," Naru said after he'd noted them down. "Now, could you elaborate more on the strange happenings?"

She frowned. "To be honest, Shibuya-san, I don't really have a good firsthand account on the rumors that were going on in this office. If you don't mind, I could bring you to some of the people who worked on this level. They'll know better about these things."

"Alright. When will you be able to arrange this?"

"Now would be a good time," she said, rising from the table. "They won't be able to come up here, but I can call them to my office."

Naru ordered Mai to stay with Bou-san in the base, and left with Lin to Tachibana-san's office. When they left, Mai settled down on the chair beside Bou-san.

They chatted lightly about mundane everyday things as they kept a watchful eye on the monitors.

:-:-:

_The lights flickered. The temperature in the toilet fell; significantly enough for her to notice it had suddenly gotten much, much colder. Mai paused, feeling a chill run down her spine in a zigzagged line. It coiled around her spine, inciting goosebumps all over her exposed skin – her arms, legs and the back of her neck. She hurriedly finished with her business and flushed the toilet._

_She almost wished she hadn't done that when the lights began flickering at an impossibly rapid pace._

_What was going on? She unlatched the cubicle door and hurtled to the door – forget washing her hands, her every pore was screaming for her to get out of there. Nearly tripping over herself in her fear, she fumbled for the doorknob. Her fingers slipped as she tried to twist it, hands clammy with sweat._

_Suddenly, she had the strangest feeling that she wasn't alone in the toilet._

"He's mine!_" came the most chilling voice she had ever heard from behind her._

_She froze, her fingers no longer moving, as she felt breathing on the back of her neck._

"_Help –" She barely got the word out before she felt the coldest sensation wrap around her neck._

_The world went black before her._

Mai jerked awake with a gasp. Upon being reassured with her surroundings, she felt her racing pulse gradually slow down. Ayako was in the base with her, watching the monitors. Bou-san and Yasuhara were at the table a few feet away from theirs.

She turned to look at Mai when she heard her gasp. "Oh, you're awake. Had a good nap?"

"You were right beside me," Mai said, frowning. "Why didn't you wake me or stop me from sleeping?"

"You looked tired," Ayako said, patting her shoulder. "Besides, I wasn't sleepy. I could keep an eye on the monitors myself."

"I always fall asleep on the job," she said, sighing. "Ayako … I had a dream."

"There, your dreams usually help with the investigation. It's not so bad to nap once in a while," Ayako said, offering her a small smile.

Mai managed a smile back. "I suppose."

"So what was it about?"

"I think I dreamt about one of the missing women. I don't know, maybe it wasn't. It definitely took place in the toilet, though." She looked down at her hands, and tried not to shiver.

"Why don't you elaborate on the details when Naru and Lin get back?" Ayako suggested.

"Yeah, I guess I should," she said.

She looked up only to lock eyes with Yasuhara, who had a concerned expression on his face. Just then, Naru and Lin returned.

Mai jumped up from her seat. "What did you manage to get?"

Naru looked at his notes before answering her. "There were warning signs before the missing people vanished. Mostly strange occurrences such as stationery getting moved around, drawers opening and closing on their own, but the majority of these happened to the missing people themselves. Nobody was with the missing people when they vanished; the people who didn't turn up at work the next day were the only ones working OT the previous night.

"I've said this earlier, but I want to reiterate this to hammer it into your head, Mai. I want you to make sure you never go anywhere alone," he said, blue eyes boring into hers.

"Of course I won't," she said, feeling a little defensive. "Why do you need to repeat it?"

"The missing women all had brown hair and brown eyes."

Color drained from Mai's face.

"It's probably just a coincidence, right?" she said quietly, mostly just to herself.

She felt Naru's impassive gaze on her. "You know what I think of coincidences, Mai. Make sure to be careful."

Trying to calm her racing heartbeat, she nodded.

"Yasuhara-san, did you get anything about the history of this building?"

Yasuhara gave a nod as he pushed up his glasses. "Do you remember what I said about the suicide that took place in this company? It was back in 1977, and it made the newspaper and the radio back then. It definitely occurred here, in this department. Everyone was talking about it, because she hung herself in the toilet. Nobody knows why she committed suicide, but there was a lot of speculation ranging from an office affair to stress at work. The company was under a lot of heat for suspected mistreatment of employees, but the investigation yielded no results especially as every employee vouched for its good working environment. That's it for this building. Before this was built, there was an old house on this plot of land. I didn't find anything of interest with regard to the original house. It wasn't built on a cemetery or anything of the sort."

Ayako paled. "In the toilet? That's what Mai dreamed about too!"

Naru turned around swiftly. "You had a dream, Mai?"

"Yes," she said, hugging herself as a chill went through her. "I was one of the missing women, I think. She was just in the toilet, doing her business. The temperature in the restroom dropped and the lights started flickering all of a sudden and she was terrified. She tried to leave, but as she was trying to open the door, she – someone behind her said, '_He's mine!_' and … and I felt this awful coldness around my neck before everything went dark. Then the dream ended. It – it was definitely in the restroom on this level."

Ayako patted her back soothingly.

"Could it have been Kasahara?" Bou-san said, stroking his chin.

They looked up at the sound of the door opening. John and Masako had arrived.

"John! Masako!" Mai said, snapping her head up.

"Good afternoon," Masako said.

John smiled and bowed. "It's been some time, everyone."

"Hara-san, can you sense anything here?" Naru said.

She nodded. "I felt them the moment I arrived on this level. There're six spirits here, but one of them feels different from the rest. She's in her mid-thirties. I sense a lot of anger from her. The other spirits give out a feeling of being lost and hopeless."

"A female ghost in her mid-thirties?"

"She's a suicide spirit," Masako said, lowering her face to her kimono sleeve. "She is very angry."

"That absolutely fits the description of Kasahara," Ayako said. "I wonder why she's so angry."

"The five other ghosts are likely to be the missing women, do you think?" Yasuhara said. "This sounds like a pretty simple case. The date of her date corroborates with when strange things started to happen in the office."

Naru appeared to be lost in his thoughts. "Still, something must have triggered this sudden acceleration in aggression. According to all the people who've worked on this floor, things only changed a couple of months ago."

"Could it be?" Yasuhara said, looking at the notes Naru had just set down. "Two new people were hired two months ago."

"Hara-san, would you be up for conducting a séance?" Naru asked. "That would be the easiest way to draw out her spirit."

She nodded. "I can do it."

With that settled everyone wolfed down a quick lunch and got to work preparing for the séance under the instructions Naru gave.

**Day 1: 11.00 PM**

Finally, in the dark, everyone sat at the circular table, where candles were arranged carefully on, and held hands. The sight of Naru holding Masako's hand held less of a sting in Mai's heart than it would have a year ago. Instead of wondering why she couldn't have been the one to hold hands with Naru, she redirected her thoughts to the commencement of the séance. Her hold on the hands of Yasuhara and Bou-san tightened slightly as she felt her palms get clammy.

Feeling Yasuhara's hand squeeze hers, Mai looked up apologetically. She realized he wasn't trying to tell her she was holding his hand too hard, but rather giving her a concerned, meaningful look after nodding at Masako and Naru. Relieved, she shook her head reassuringly.

"It doesn't bother me much anymore," she mouthed at him.

He looked surprised, but only responded with a nod and a gentle smile.

For reasons unfathomable to her, the feel of Yasuhara's hand on hers suddenly seemed very warm and electrifying - his fingers curled easily over the back of her hand, the pads of them resting comfortably on it. Mortified at the abrupt creeping of heat up the base of her neck to spread across her face, Mai clapped her hands to her face - before remembering that they were still holding Bou-san's and Yasuhara's. The back of Bou-san's hand felt like nothing against her burning cheeks, but Yasuhara's sent shrieking tingles up and down her spine. She immediately put her - or rather, their - hands down upon realizing that everyone was staring at her.

Yasuhara and Bou-san looked confused while the others, excluding Naru, looked curious. Naru's expression was inscrutable as usual, but Mai noticed his eyebrows were slightly scrunched towards his temple in the semblance of a barely perceptible frown.

She cleared her throat and smiled sheepishly at the rest. "Sorry, I was just, uh, nervous."

"Let's begin," Naru said.

Everyone followed Naru's earlier instructions, chanting the verses they'd memorized.

Abruptly, Masako's head bent forwards. Mai watched tensely, feeling a chill carefully tread down her spine. Yasuhara's fingers moved slightly over the back of her hand, barely a caress. Heat flooded her cheeks again, and Mai scolded herself. _This isn't anything to blush about!_ It was just Yasuhara's hand. Briefly, she wondered what holding Naru's hand would feel like but quickly banished the thought. It was a pointless and extremely impossible idea.

"What do you want?" The spirit spoke in Masako's voice, but it was clear it wasn't her. "Leave me alone! Nobody understands ... Just get out of here and leave me alone!"

"Are you Sae Kasahara?" Naru's crisp voice carried itself firmly through the small office they were holding the séance in.

"What of it?"

"Are you responsible for the missing ladies in this office?"

"They were shameless tramps; constantly flirting with my man! They were the reason my beloved Kaoru betrayed me! They deserved it! All brunettes are such shameless sluts!"

The last sentence jolted Mai. Yasuhara squeezed her hand comfortingly, and she squeezed it back.

"Are you aware that you are dead?"

"... I ... I know that! It was all her fault - if she hadn't stolen him from me I wouldn't have killed myself! I wanted him to cry over my death, knowing it was because of him!"

"Kasahara-san, you have been dead for twenty-eight years. There is presently no one with the name Kaoru working in the HR department."

"What ... what lies! Stop lying to me!"

Naru nodded at the table they were sitting around, where a photograph was placed in front of Masako. "Is this what he looks like?"

"That's my Kaoru! Even in photographs, he is so handsome." She swooned.

"This is the profile photo of Junpei Nakamura, who was first hired by this firm on the third of January. He is twenty-nine years old. How old is Kaoru?"

"You lie! This is Kaoru!"

"The Kaoru you knew twenty-eight years ago will not look anything like he did now. You have mistaken Nakamura for him."

"No … this can't be! How could I … How could I have done this …"

"Where are the women you killed right now?"

She let out a sob. "They … they're in Kao—Nakamura's spare cabinets in his office …"

They ended the séance after John managed to persuade her to move on. Mai noticed that Naru snatched his hand out of Masako's the moment he no longer needed to hold it. She dismissed it; it was probably her hopeful imagination at work _again_. Really, she needed to work on making herself less susceptible to hopeless daydreams.

The police were called in to recover the bodies of the missing ladies, and Tachibana thanked Naru profusely for his help.

With no further incoming cases, the rest of the week at the SPR office passed by uneventfully. Mai noted that Naru had purchased a package of Kocha tea leaves instead of the regular Gyokuro ones to store in the tea cabinet in the kitchen. When she asked him out of curiosity, he had merely said that he wanted to try something new. Mai had shrugged and gone on with her business, already looking forward to the weekend.

When Saturday evening finally rolled around, she excitedly got ready to meet Yasuhara to go to Bou-san's concert together. Bou-san's band had recently come out with a new album, and Mai absolutely loved a particular song from it. Bou-san had promised her that they would be performing it in this concert, and this had made her look forward to it more than anything.

It'd been thirty minutes after the time Yasuhara and Mai had agreed to be ready to leave their respective houses by, and she was still waiting for his call. Sure, she had said he could take longer if he needed to since they'd be early anyway, but she didn't think he'd take longer than fifteen minutes! Just as she was about to call him, her phone screen sprang to life. He was calling her.

"Yasuhara-san! Are you done?" she said eagerly, grabbing her bag and heading for the door.

"I'm so sorry, Taniyama-san, but I'm still in the shower!"

Mai almost fell over. "What?! You know what; I'm just going to go over to your place right now."

"Alright. Sorry again, I'll be done as soon as possible!"

In his second year of college, Yasuhara had moved out from his parents' into one of the units in Mai's apartment, but neither of them had realized it until he casually mentioned it during a random visit to the SPR office. Amazement was all that Mai could feel when she first heard the news. Of all the places he could have chosen, it was _her_ particular apartment and he hadn't even known it. Their tutoring sessions were far more convenient after that; either he went to her apartment or she went up to his.

She kept him on the line as she reached his apartment door. "I'm here already. Are you almost done now?"

"In a bit!"

"Geez, Yasuhara-san! You're taking even longer than I did to get ready!" Mai said into her phone, knocking on his door just because. "Shouldn't the guy be the one going to the girl's house to wait because she's taking so long?"

"Now, now, Taniyama-san, what day and age is it now? Girls and guys have a more equal status now," Yasuhara-san said, and Mai could hear rustling in the background.

"I can barely hear you over the background noise because you put me on speaker," she complained.

"I'm sorry, but if I held my phone to my ear I'd take a longer time. Give me a moment; I'll be out of the shower in a bit."

"Oh, alright. I'll hang up, but don't forget to hurry up!" Huffing and folding her arms, Mai leaned against the wall next to the door.

The door clicked open barely a minute later.

She perked up. "That was fast-"

She immediately halted when she turned to look at him, her jaw dropping. He was still dripping wet, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. "Hey, come on in first."

Gasping, she flailed her arms. "Wha – what are you do-doing?! Why aren't you wearing any clothes?!"

He looked surprised for a moment, but the expression quickly gave way to amusement when he looked back down to what he was wearing. "I'm not wearing _nothing_, Taniyama-san. Besides, I thought you told me to hurry and I felt it'd be rude to keep you waiting out here while I change and get my things ready. Come in first; you can sit on my couch to wait while I go back in to change properly."

She barely heard half the words he was saying. Her hands had flown up to cover her face and eyes the moment she caught sight of him dressed so … _indecently_. Her cheeks were awfully warm to the touch, and she was sure that her entire face was as red as a ripe tomato.

"People wear just as little, if not less, at the swimming pool, you know," he said, closing the door behind her.

She sputtered, trying not to look at his muscular arms and torso as he started walking back to his bedroom. "This is not the swimming pool!"

She only heard his muffled laughter in response. How on earth had she never noticed how well-built and toned he was? Well, she supposed he'd never been half-naked in front of her before. The thought made her flush again. He was no professional body-builder, but he was definitely in far better form than she would expect the average guy who barely exercised to be. Clearly, _he_ exercised on a regular basis.

Flustered, she smacked her cheeks with both hands.

_Don't be ridiculous!_ she told herself. _So what if he's fit? Plenty of people are fit!_

He came out after a couple of minutes, dressed in a dark green polo shirt and black jeans.

Forcing her mind to focus on something else, Mai grasped at his lateness again. "Geez, I can't believe you take even longer showers than mine!"

"Hey, we live in a modern society now. Nowadays even girls do the proposing. Why can't we guys take long showers too?" he said, toweling his hair off.

"No one said anything about proposals!" she cried, embarrassed despite not knowing what for. "_Honestly_, Yasuhara-san!"

He chuckled at the exasperation openly displayed on her face. "Alright, alright. I thought you said I could take more time if I needed though?"

"I didn't realize you'd take quite so long. I - I just wanted to get some cake before the concert," she said, flushing. "I thought you wouldn't mind accompanying me..."

He stared at her, open-mouthed, for a few seconds before grinning. She half-heartedly protested as his hand landed on her head and ruffled her hair. She was already used to him doing that every now and then; his tutoring sessions often involved hair-ruining when she understood a problem he was helping her with.

"Of course I won't mind," he said. "To the cake shop we go, boss!"

Mai found the corners of her lips involuntarily twitching upwards. "Yes, yes, my good subordinate!"

They found a cake shop tucked away behind numerous other stores, a street away from the stadium Bou-san's concert was going to be held at.

"This is way too well-hidden," Mai said, stepping into the shop as the wind chimes tinkled.

She wondered if they got much business. Yasuhara followed after her to look at the large array of bite-sized cakes put on display on the counter.

The girl behind the counter chirped, "Welcome! May I help you?"

Mai turned to her. "Hello! I've never been here before. What's your most popular cake?"

She beamed. "Our pastry chef's pride is our strawberry chiffon cake!"

She gestured to a pink cake layered with thin slices of strawberries, topped off with light blue frosting. Mai could barely stop herself from drooling at the look of it.

"How much is it?"

"700 yen."

"I'll take it!"

"Alright!" The cake was quickly packed away in an equally cute frilly box. "Thank you very much for your patronage!"

"I'm done! Thanks for coming with me, Yasuhara-" Mai stopped when she turned around to see he wasn't beside her.

He was standing before a shelf of candies. Curious, she joined him. To her astonishment, he'd gathered a heap full of colorfully wrapped sweets in his arms.

"That's a lot of sweets! Eh, so you like sweets, Yasuhara-san?"

"Yeah, I really like them. Don't you?"

"Yeah, I do," she said. "Do you think these will be good?"

He shrugged and grinned. "I certainly hope so."

:-:-:

Yasuhara was at it again. Mai barely stifled her giggles as he swooned again, making similar shrieking sounds to the fan girls around them. He grinned at her.

"He's really trying to avoid eye contact with me when his gaze reaches our side of the stadium," he said.

She laughed. "Can you really blame him?"

Bou-san looked completely at home on the stage; his fingers danced over the bass guitar like they were made for the strings. Mai's senses were so entangled with the rock music firmly riding across the stadium that she hadn't noticed the girl next to her stumbling. The girl fell onto Mai and caused the latter to lose her balance.

"I'm so sorry!" the girl cried, but it was barely heard over the roaring crowd and music.

"Ah –!" Mai started falling backwards.

She would have crashed into the girl behind her if Yasuhara hadn't clutched onto her arm and pulled her towards himself. The next thing Mai knew, her face was buried in his chest. He smelled like soap and cologne. Face faintly tinged with pink, she pulled away carefully.

"Thanks, Yasuhara-san!" she babbled. "You really saved me there!"

"Of course, it's no problem," he said with a cheeky grin, ruffling her hair again. "I love saving damsels in distress."

"Damsels in distress? Honestly!" she said, laughing.

They fell back into an easy silence again, watching the rest of the performance.

When Mai finally reached her apartment, she flopped onto her couch in relief after tossing her bag aside. It'd been a long day and she was exhausted. Rotating herself so that she would be lying horizontally on the couch, she unashamedly flopped back down again. She yelped when she did, feeling her back pressed against a large hard mound. Scrambling to get up, she stared at the spot where she'd been lying on. There wasn't anything there.

Sighing, she shrugged out of her coat – and stopped in surprise when she spotted a noticeable bulge in one of the pockets. She turned it around and unzipped it. It was filled to the brim with the sweets Yasuhara had bought at the shop earlier. If she had to guess, she would probably estimate the quantity in the pocket to be about half the total he'd bought.

Mai stared at it for a moment before reaching up to feel her face. Was this a dream?

She winced in pain after pinching herself. This definitely wasn't a dream.

A smile spread across her face. She unwrapped one of the sweets and popped it in her mouth. She was already starting to feel energized for taking a shower before going to bed.

_Thanks, Yasuhara-san._ She sent him the text after drying her hair from the shower.

Several colorful candy wrappers were splayed beside her hands as Mai fell asleep on her side with a half-dissolved sweet in her mouth.

:-:-:

**Author's Note:** Augh I'm an idiot, I made the premise of the first case way too easy to solve! I realized my mistake halfway through writing Masako's part! I promise the next one would be much more interesting and less anticlimactic _and_ definitely last longer. Creepy children FTW! But really sorry, guys. AUGH. BTW, Kocha is black tea and Gyokuro is an expensive green tea. Or something like that, I believe. Much thanks again to _DeathWriter97_ for reviewing the first chapter; I really really appreciate it and it really motivated me! *heart*


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